An immunohistochemical atlas of necroptotic pathway expression.

Necroptosis is a lytic form of regulated cell death reported to contribute to inflammatory diseases of the gut, skin and lung, as well as ischemic-reperfusion injuries of the kidney, heart and brain. However, precise identification of the cells and tissues that undergo necroptotic cell death in vivo has proven challenging in the absence of robust protocols for immunohistochemical detection. Here, we provide automated immunohistochemistry protocols to detect core necroptosis regulators - Caspase-8, RIPK1, RIPK3 and MLKL - in formalin-fixed mouse and human tissues.

MLKL deficiency protects against low-grade, sterile inflammation in aged mice.

MLKL and RIPK3 are the core signaling proteins of the inflammatory cell death pathway, necroptosis, which is a known mediator and modifier of human disease. Necroptosis has been implicated in the progression of disease in almost every physiological system and recent reports suggest a role for necroptosis in aging. Here, we present the first comprehensive analysis of age-related histopathological and immunological phenotypes in a cohort of Mlkl and Ripk3 mice on a congenic C57BL/6 J genetic background.

Proinflammatory microenvironment promotes lymphoma progression in mice with high megakaryocyte and TPO levels.

Platelets have been shown to enhance the survival of lymphoma cell lines. However, it remains unclear whether they play a role in lymphoma. Here, we investigated the potential role of platelets and/or megakaryocytes in the progression of Eμ-myc lymphoma.

The RNA-binding protein SRSF3 has an essential role in megakaryocyte maturation and platelet production.

RNA processing is increasingly recognized as a critical control point in the regulation of different hematopoietic lineages including megakaryocytes responsible for the production of platelets. Platelets are anucleate cytoplasts that contain a rich repertoire of RNAs encoding proteins with essential platelet functions derived from the parent megakaryocyte. It is largely unknown how RNA binding proteins contribute to the development and functions of megakaryocytes and platelets.

The necroptotic cell death pathway operates in megakaryocytes, but not in platelet synthesis.

Necroptosis is a pro-inflammatory cell death program executed by the terminal effector, mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL). Previous studies suggested a role for the necroptotic machinery in platelets, where loss of MLKL or its upstream regulator, RIPK3 kinase, impacted thrombosis and haemostasis. However, it remains unknown whether necroptosis operates within megakaryocytes, the progenitors of platelets, and whether necroptotic cell death might contribute to or diminish platelet production.

Membrane budding is a major mechanism of in vivo platelet biogenesis.

How platelets are produced by megakaryocytes in vivo remains controversial despite more than a century of investigation. Megakaryocytes readily produce proplatelet structures in vitro; however, visualization of platelet release from proplatelets in vivo has remained elusive. We show that within the native prenatal and adult environments, the frequency and rate of proplatelet formation is incompatible with the physiological demands of platelet replacement.

A missense mutation in the MLKL brace region promotes lethal neonatal inflammation and hematopoietic dysfunction.

MLKL is the essential effector of necroptosis, a form of programmed lytic cell death. We have isolated a mouse strain with a single missense mutation, Mlkl, that alters the two-helix 'brace' that connects the killer four-helix bundle and regulatory pseudokinase domains. This confers constitutive, RIPK3 independent killing activity to MLKL.

Targeting platelets for improved outcome in KRAS-driven lung adenocarcinoma.

Elevated platelet count is associated with poor survival in certain solid cancers, including lung cancer. In addition, experimental transplantation of cancer cell lines has uncovered a role for platelets in blood-borne metastasis. These studies, however, do not account for heterogeneity between lung cancer subtypes.

Intrinsic apoptosis circumvents the functional decline of circulating platelets but does not cause the storage lesion.

The circulating life span of blood platelets is regulated by the prosurvival protein BCL-X It restrains the activity of BAK and BAX, the essential prodeath mediators of intrinsic apoptosis. Disabling the platelet intrinsic apoptotic pathway in mice by deleting BAK and BAX results in a doubling of platelet life span and concomitant thrombocytosis. Apoptotic platelets expose phosphatidylserine (PS) via a mechanism that is distinct from that driven by classical agonists.

Altered B-lymphopoiesis in mice with deregulated thrombopoietin signaling.

Thrombopoietin (TPO) is the master cytokine regulator of megakaryopoiesis. In addition to regulation of megakaryocyte and platelet number, TPO is important for maintaining proper hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) function. It was previously shown that a number of lymphoid genes were upregulated in HSCs from Tpo mice.

Regulation of platelet lifespan in the presence and absence of thrombopoietin signaling.

Unlabelled: Essentials We examined platelet survival in models of absent or enhanced thrombopoietin (TPO) signaling. Platelet lifespan is normal in transgenic mice with chronically enhanced TPO signaling. Mpl deficiency does not negatively affect platelet lifespan in the absence of thrombocytopenia.

PU.1 cooperates with IRF4 and IRF8 to suppress pre-B-cell leukemia.

The Ets family transcription factor PU.1 and the interferon regulatory factor (IRF)4 and IRF8 regulate gene expression by binding to composite DNA sequences known as Ets/interferon consensus elements. Although all three factors are expressed from the onset of B-cell development, single deficiency of these factors in B-cell progenitors only mildly impacts on bone marrow B lymphopoiesis.

Differential requirement for Nfil3 during NK cell development.

NK cells can be grouped into distinct subsets that are localized to different organs and exhibit a different capacity to secrete cytokines and mediate cytotoxicity. Despite these hallmarks that reflect tissue-specific specialization in NK cells, little is known about the factors that control the development of these distinct subsets. The basic leucine zipper transcription factor Nfil3 (E4bp4) is essential for bone marrow-derived NK cell development, but it is not clear whether Nfil3 is equally important for all NK cell subsets or how it induces NK lineage commitment.

Functional characterization of quiescent keratinocyte stem cells and their progeny reveals a hierarchical organization in human skin epidermis.

Although homeostatic renewal of human skin epidermis is achieved by the combined activity of quiescent stem cells (SCs) and their actively cycling progeny, whether these two populations are equipotent in their capacity to regenerate tissue has not been determined in biological assays that mimic lifelong renewal. Using fluorescence activated cell separation strategy validated previously by us, human epidermis was fractionated into three distinct subsets: that is, α 6briCD71(dim) , α 6briCD71(bri) , and α 6dim with characteristics of keratinocyte stem, transient amplifying, and early differentiating cells, respectively. The global gene expression profile of these fractions was determined by microarray, confirming that the α 6briCD71(dim) subset was quiescent, the α 6briCD71(bri) was actively cycling, and the α 6dim subset expressed markers of differentiation.

A role for pericytes as microenvironmental regulators of human skin tissue regeneration.

The cellular and molecular microenvironment of epithelial stem and progenitor cells is poorly characterized despite well-documented roles in homeostatic tissue renewal, wound healing, and cancer progression. Here, we demonstrate that, in organotypic cocultures, dermal pericytes substantially enhanced the intrinsically low tissue-regenerative capacity of human epidermal cells that have committed to differentiate and that this enhancement was independent of angiogenesis. We used microarray analysis to identify genes expressed by human dermal pericytes that could potentially promote epidermal regeneration.

Combination therapy of established cancer using a histone deacetylase inhibitor and a TRAIL receptor agonist.

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) and agents such as recombinant tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and agonistic anti-TRAIL receptor (TRAIL-R) antibodies are anticancer agents that have shown promise in preclinical settings and in early phase clinical trials as monotherapies. Although HDACi and activators of the TRAIL pathway have different molecular targets and mechanisms of action, they share the ability to induce tumor cell-selective apoptosis. The ability of HDACi to induce expression of TRAIL-R death receptors 4 and 5 (DR4/DR5), and induce tumor cell death via the intrinsic apoptotic pathway provides a molecular rationale to combine these agents with activators of the TRAIL pathway that activate the alternative (death receptor) apoptotic pathway.

Establishment of 3D organotypic cultures using human neonatal epidermal cells.

This protocol describes an ex vivo three-dimensional coculture system optimized to study the skin regenerative ability of primary human keratinocytes grown at the air-liquid interface on collagen matrices embedded with human dermal fibroblasts. An option for enrichment of keratinocyte stem cells and their progeny using fluorescence-activated cell sorting is also provided. Initially, dermal equivalents, comprising human passaged fibroblasts seeded in a collagen matrix, are grown on porous filters (3 mum) placed in transwells.

Monoclonal antibodies to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) inhibit binding of the hormone to its receptor.

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) specific to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) were obtained using different strategies of conjugation of the peptide to carrier protein and immunization. Of several antibodies obtained, two, namely F1D3C5 and E2D2 bound GnRH in solution phase. Though the epitopes corresponding to the two overlapped, there was a one amino acid shift in the core epitope.